Directv and Dish deliver a digital signal to the satellite receiver. The satellite receiver converts it to an analog signal. You won't need a converter.

if your local channels do HD over the air, then all you need is a antenna since you have HDTVs. you WILL need to have a dedicated antenna run to each tv. this can be accomplished by using rabbit ears, NO NEED to buy the high dollar HDTV rabbit ears regular ones work fine, at each tv. or you can put up 1 central antenna and have it feed a splitter and run a dedicated RG 6 line to each tv. you hook your Sat RX to the TV using your RCA connections, and screw the coax for the Antenna directly onthe antenna/cable in F female connector onthe TV. you can run the antenna thru the sat RX, but in my experience you lose signal this way.

on my HDTV i had my antenna run thru my directv sat rx at first. all i could pick up was 1 local statioin in analog. i hooked it up direct to the coax in onthe tv,, and i picked up 12 stations, 6 of them HD! i only have a 1980's model set of rabbit ears sitting in my attic feeding a 2 port splitter. once i get my outside antenna up this spring, i should be able to pick up a few more stations as they almost come in now.

I live out in the middle of nowhere, "locals" is just what they call the networks. We used our outdoor antenna, before the "locals" became available on the dish. Are the satellite companies going to convert to an analog signal forever? Will HD through the satellite companies always cost more money? If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm cheap, and I have been waiting it out for Feb. 2008 for everything to change.

There are three different types of Over The Air (OTA) transmissions from local networks. Analog Standard Definition , Digital Standard Definition, and Digital High Definition - HD.

Cable companies pick up these transmissions (as well as cable network feeds) and send them to your house over the cable line as a combination of analog (ch 2-99) and digital signals (higher numbers). The cable box that you rent from the cable company will pick up that signal and send it to your TV. The cable companies are not affected by the FCC's requirement to end analog OTA broadcasts in any way.

Satellite companies send all their transmissions digitally from their satellites to the dish on your roof. The box by each TV picks up this signal and will send it to your TV. The Satellite Companies are not affected by the FCC's requirement to end analog OTA broadcasts in any way.

The only thing that will change next year is that analog OTA broadcasts will end. This will only affect the people that use rabbit ears (or other types of rooftop antennas) to pick up local network channels (ch. 2-63) These channels will be replaced with the digital equivelant (HD or could be SD). Those channel numbers will end in a -1, -2, -3, etc. depending on how many sub-channels they broadcast. Example, PBS in my area is 10-1, 10-2, 10-3, 10-4, 10-5, 10-6, 10-7, and 10-8. CBS HD is 58-1, and they also carry another small local channel in SD on 58-2.

Direct TV has close to 100 of their channels in HD now. I recommend checking that out and consider switching to them and getting the HD receivers and get the most out of your TV. You can still use a conventional antenna to receive whatever local networks Direct TV doesn't carry.

Michael

Thank you for the answers.

One thing about DirecTV, if you like Tivo you can forget about it. We have DirecTV and use their DirecTV Plus HD DVR in our living room and their standard DVR in our bedroom. Compared with a real Tivo, the interface is amazingly bad.

We will be ditching DirecTV and selecting cable or Fios so that we can go back to Tivo.

"One thing about DirecTV, if you like Tivo you can forget about it. We have DirecTV and use their DirecTV Plus HD DVR in our living room and their standard DVR in our bedroom. Compared with a real Tivo, the interface is amazingly bad.
We will be ditching DirecTV and selecting cable or Fios so that we can go back to Tivo.

I agree that the DirecTV DVR interface is awful.
But why can't you can still use your Tivos?
I had to switch to DirecTV when we moved but no way am I giving up my multi room viewing Tivo network!! They work fine with DirecTV receivers.

None of the new HD Tivo receivers are compatible with DirecTV.